Structural trusses are used for the fabrication of buildings in the construction industry. The primary application of structural trusses is to define a desired roof line and to support the roof by the building walls and interior structure. Trusses are typically fashioned from a series of joined vertical, horizontal, and angled members. Historically, trusses have been fabricated from wooden members joined by flat metal plates having a plurality of spiked projections therefrom for driving the plates into the wooden members and retaining the members in a joined relationship.
In recent years, metal trusses have gained favor in the construction industry. Metal trusses are typically comprised of metal U-channels and square tubular members with the members being joined by mechanical fasteners.
When added to a building structure, metal trusses are primarily in a parallel spaced apart relationship. However, for hipped roofs or roofs of multiple roof lines and the like, secondary trusses are required for attachment to the primary trusses to give the desired roof lines. The secondary trusses are joined to the primary trusses by abutting the secondary truss to the primary truss and manually holding the truss in place while angled clips are fastened to the trusses to join the various horizontal or vertical truss members. In practice, mechanical fasteners are installed through each flange of the angled clips thereby resulting in load transference between trusses via fasteners which are installed essentially at right angles to each other. This method of joining trusses results in the undesired inducement of bending movements in the flanges of the angled clips, misalignment of secondary trusses with respect to the primary trusses, and lateral movement and play between trusses as roof loads are applied.